Come June, it was time for his first history and geography lessons to start with Aunt Abi.
Kieran was standing in the foyer, normal clothes with the small addition of a rainbow scarf and a silver monocle.
His Aunt Abi was in a casual summer dress, neither of them stood out too much, which made Kieran assume they were going for muggle locations first.
Which was fine, his aunt was wonderful company, as she herself had explicitly said.
“Now Kieran, we will use apparition for this journey. You have nothing to be worried about; you are in safe hands. I may have learned apparition because I think it was fascinating, but I have grown very competent with it, despite your dad’s worries,” Aunt Abi said while grabbing his hand and smiling at him in a comforting way.
Kieran nodded, half excited, half nervous.
He had never apparated before after all, he wondered how it would feel.
The books described it as being squeezed through a tube, which was a weird thing to imagine, he wondered how it actually would feel like.
His mum was doing her last-minute fussing, ensuring they have enough water with them and muggle money for whatever they fancy, once she was satisfied, Kieran waved at her.
“Bye, bye, mum!”
With a POP!
Aunt Abi apparated with Kieran and they arrived in a city park, Kieran shaking his head at the weird feeling he got…squeezed through a tube, who would have thought it was a completely accurate description.
“That was such a weird feeling Aunt Abi! When can I apparate?” Kieran asked while swinging with his aunt’s arm.
Aunt Abi shook her head at him, “It is something you are only allowed to learn once you are 17, because it can go very wrong if you don’t know what you are doing.” Kieran nodded his head sulking, of course that detail had to be the same as the books too.
Both of them walked out of the park.
“Where are we, Aunt Abi?” asked Kieran.
“We are in the city of Bath, very close to the Roman Baths, one of the best preserved Roman religious spa complexes in the world,” said Aunt Abi, as she guided him toward the Roman Baths while holding his hand.
“The city’s Roman name was Aquae Sulis, Waters of Sulis, named after the Celtic goddess Sulis whom the Romans is said to have encountered when they arrived in Britain around 43 AD.”
As Kieran enjoyed looking at the architecture they were walking past, Aunt Abi explained that the water would flow through limestone hills which raised its temperature to become part of Britains hottest thermal springs, producing warm water for thousands of years.
As they got closer to their destination, Aunt Abi gave more details on the history of the Roman Baths.
Romans had found the spring and built around it.
The Celtics considered the spring sacred, and instead of conquering the spring, the Romans integrated with the spring.
“Behind that history is the truth that the magicals of Rome and the Celtic magicals were the reason for this integration. The spring was a magical confluence point that was used by the Celtics to worship Sulis. In an uncommon display of unity, the Romans took their own goddess Minerva and created a hybrid goddess named Sulis Minerva,” Aunt Abi explained.
Kieran found this fascinating; two very different cultures managed to find a middle ground and created a fusion that became the sum of its parts.
The Roman magicals likely realized the spring was a magical confluence point and wanted part in it using their own magical culture with as little fighting as possible.
When they arrived at the Roman Baths, Aunt Abi took Kieran on a personally guided tour, while explaining various facts about the site.
Eventually she explained the Curse Tablets, 130 lead curse tablets had messages written to Sulis Minerva, asking the goddess to punish the people that had wronged the petitioner, then they were thrown into the spring as offerings.
One such tablet asked that the person who stole their gloves would lose their mind, which Kieran considered an extreme overreaction, but also acknowledged that the culture back then likely was different.
The language of the tablets were written in Latin, but some showed traces of Celtic linguistic influence, especially the tablets that were written in a script that ran backwards.
This, as it turned out according to Aunt Abi, was not a coincidence.
These tablets with Celtic linguistic influence, were written by actual wizards and witches; Celtic magicals using the Roman religious infrastructure as convenient cover for genuine curse work.
A trained Celtic wizard throwing a constructed curse into a genuine magical confluence point was a remarkably effective delivery mechanism.
The backwards script was the binding of the curse.
This piece of history reminded Kieran that magic could be wondrous but also dangerous, and different cultures had very different approaches on how to wield magic.
Some cultures likely even treated dark magic as normal, seeing it as just an aspect of magic, instead of forbidden magic like the British Isles did.
Throughout the tour, Kieran admired the various architecture of the Roman Baths, enjoying the historical context Aunt Abi was giving.
Based on how knowledgeable Aunt Abi was regarding everything, really told Kieran that she had studied a lot to give Kieran the best lesson she could give.
He especially enjoyed hearing the magical history hidden within the muggle history, the magical subtext that no one noticed until they looked closer with new eyes.
Once Aunt Abi told him about the re-discovery of the Roman Baths, he got especially interested, knowing the Ministry would likely had gotten involved in this aspect.
Hearing Aunt Abi explain that when they were building Bath, they discovered the Roman Baths with the thermal spring in the 1870s.
Muggles found it first.
The Ministry of Magic had a significant operation in the 1870s managing the rediscovery.
The Ministry had to ensure that what archaeologists found was the Roman religious infrastructure and not the magical aspects.
They had to remove certain artefacts before they could be catalogued, and memory-modifying several archaeologists who got too close and had a chance to understand what they were looking at.
Several experts on Celtic magical culture were called in for this endeavour.
Eventually leading to the city being named after this site, Bath.
…
After some hours of discussing the Roman Baths, Aunt Abi led him to a bench near the area, a bit away from where most people were.
As they sat on the bench in the relative quiet place, Aunt Abi started another topic.
“You likely remember Wingardium Leviosa, the spell I showed you when you awakened your magic. That incantation is the way it is, entirely due to the Romans occupying this country,” Aunt Abi said, taking a deep breath, Kieran focusing all his attention on his aunt.
“When Rome withdrew, the Latin incantation that magicals had adopted, remained. It had become part of the written structure, whereas Celtic and Gaelic incantations became outdated. Spells became naturally written in Latin, and it became the British Isles common magic incantation. Which was especially fixed in place once the Hogwarts Founders, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff created their entire curriculum using the Latin incantations.”
Kieran’s mind was blown.
It was so obvious in hindsight, but he just never considered why all spell incantations used Latin instead of English.
He knew different magical cultures used other languages.
At the end of the day, the incantations were a trigger for the mindset, the language didn’t matter as much, but he just never considered the real reason that the British Isles used Latin specifically.
Hearing the historical context of the incantations of the world of Harry Potter and the British Isles was utterly fascinating.
It was a subject he never truly considered before; it was just the way it was.
He can tell the time his aunt put into this lesson, the care, and he loved her for it.
“Aunt Abi, could I in the future create a spell and use entirely English incantation?” Kieran was curious on what his aunt would answer regarding this.
“Craig is likely a better person to ask for the specifics, but overall, it would be almost impossible to publish. Our current incantations are part of our culture, and our wizarding population can be very rigid when it comes to traditions. You could create it with English incantation, but I highly doubt people would ever use it,” Aunt Abi said as she smiled apologetically.
“Creating spells is hard work however, it requires magical finesse and expertise regarding spell theory, but it is a worthy goal that I think you should aim for.” Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.
After some thinking, Kieran asked his aunt again, “Aunt Abi, even though Latin incantations became the norm, does the Celtic or Gaelic incantations still exist somewhere?”
Aunt Abi seemed to take a while to process the question.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. I like to believe that there are some wizards or witches out there, that uses old incantations or tries to innovate with them,” she answered, as she ruffles Kieran’s hair, making him try to defend his hair from her hands.
“If you one day find out whether the old incantations are still used, do let me know. I look forward to the answer.”
On Kieran’s request, they headed back to the Roman Baths.
They stood on the balcony, looking down at the main pool, seeing the green mineral-rich water, some Roman lead pipes still visible, the surrounding columns giving the pool a ritualistic feeling.
Following a random thought, Kieran stood in silence, trying to enter deep meditation, focusing on the surroundings.
He had tried several ways to extend his magical senses outside his body, and he wondered if it was even possible at all.
A magical confluence point may be potent enough for him to feel something.
Aunt Abi thankfully didn’t disturb him; he was unsure how long passed as he tried to extend his magical senses beyond him.
Suddenly, for a short moment, he felt a tiny jolt, less than a tiny prick.
He lost it again instantly, but he knew what he felt was magic outside his body.
He wanted to believe he felt the ambient magic of the area, if only for a short moment.
He decided to treat the jolt as a proof of concept that the senses to detect magic existed in the world with enough training, and that was enough for now.
After the lesson and the experiment that turned out to have taken half an hour, Aunt Abi took Kieran shopping around the area of Bath.
They chatted casually about how everything was going, whether he needed any assistance with his magical exercises and experimentation.
Aunt Abi even sprinkled some various titbits in from her and his dad growing up, some embarrassing facts about his dad, which made Kieran giggle.
Several times they stopped up, and Aunt Abi pointed out some structures, like an inn.
Showing that muggles didn’t notice the structures existed, explaining that all British cities got various buildings with muggle-repelling charms.
You could only see them if they were pointed out to you by someone else that knew about them, which was how muggleborn’s parents accessed the floo network through these buildings.
With a low voice, Kieran asked his aunt something he had been wondering, “Aunt Abi, how do muggles use the floo network? Since they aren’t capable of using magical transportation like brooms.”
Aunt Abi smiled at his question, “Whereas a broom would require the internal magic connection with its wielder, the floo networks magic connection is the floo powder. It is created with the purpose that anyone wielding it and throwing it into the fireplace while standing in it, takes them to a connected fireplace closest to where they declare their direction,” Aunt Abi said, then she gave Kieran a small side hug.
“It is good you ask me all these questions, it shows you are thinking about what I am teaching you.”
They spent the rest of the day exploring Bath and travelling to the Mendip Hills where the springs originated.
Walking amongst the hills and seeing the various lakes and flowing water, made Kieran relax, having a new appreciation for this piece of nature, now knowing the historical context, be it muggle or magical.
Step into the Restricted Section
You-know-where/Murtageyra
The first volume which I called Pre-Hogwarts, is finished in there ^^